Following a post earlier this week about copyright infringement blinddogbooks.wordpress.com/2014/07/24/copyright-infingement-a-warning-to-all-authors
fellow author Owen Jones contacted Amazon and received the following information.
The best way to handle with this type of piracy issue is to file a complaint with intellectual property theft agency. In an attempt to help you I browsed the internet and was able to locate few websites which may help you in this regard.
I hope this is of help to anyone affected by this devious firm that is likely to cut you off if you try to challenge why they are carrying your books without permission and offering downloads for free in some instances.
Sunday.I know I turned my light out last night a little after 12.15 am. I could hear the film Mike was watching until I drifted away. I woke up again at what I think was 3.00 am but The Sleepless One who Shall Not Be Named swears it was 3.15 am. What’s a quarter of an hour between friends. When I went to the loo not long after I swear someone was asleep though he swears not. I started on the mail and by 5.45 I was almost there and decided I could probably go back to bed for a while. I did nod off and enjoyed a few hours sleep only to find when I got up it was all of 6.21 amand to add insult to injury that 30 minutes or so had collected me another 42 pieces of post. Still, it’s a Sunday, I have all the time in the world, why worry. I saw to the fish at 7.00 am, took my meds and made myself a coffee. I carried on working , commenting, liking, thanking, in my own little world when all of a sudden an apparition appeared at my door. No, not the ghost of Oscar but Himself. The man who can’t get out of bed without three calls from the alarm clock, a shout from me, a coffee and a bolt of lightning from Zeus himself. It’s 8.21 in the a.m. and he’s trying to give me a heart attack. you can tell he knows what he’s doing to me because this breathless wheeze escapes his mouth that makes him sound like Muttley.
I’m in such shock I let him make his own coffee. I’m thinking of having another mouthwash, purely for medicinal purposes you understand. He chooses that moment to dash off to the bathroom so I just carry on working. The forecast for today is quite good and Mike suggests a car boot. I like the idea but suggest not going to the big one as the ground will be sodden underfoot after yesterdays downpour. Instead there’s a smaller one fairly local which is on hardstanding so he agrees to that.We get out about 9.15 am and arrive about 9.40 am. There aren’t as many stalls as I’d hoped and the best bargains might have gone but there’s plenty left. We hit one stall and buy some books, 4 each from a young lady who said she didn’t think she was going to sell any of her books today. Mike said she just hadn’t had discerning readers up till that point as he chose 4 Stephen Donaldson’s, I chose 4 Terry Brooks. I picked up the obligatory picture frame as nowhere would be the same these days if I didn’t buy a frame. I think I’ve more frames than wall now. A couple more books and then something like a doorbell that plays a wicked tune and says Beware at the end because it reminds us of the Addams Family. Finally a computer/office chair which is leather and looks unused. We were done and decided we needed a coffee.
We headed for Flint and stopped at my favourite shop for chocolates on the way. Then a few minutes in a shop with SALE written across the windows of course. Finally we got to Temptations for a drink. He was very disappointed that Ceri wasn’t there to argue with. We enjoyed the drink anyway as it was awfully warm outside and with the chair in the boot we couldn’t have the roof down. So, we took the goodies home swapped chairs. unpacked the rest of the stuff locked up again and took the old chair to the skips. Once disposed of we headed off to the Ivy for lunch and to see if Tariq and the family had managed to get their holiday after all. Mike’s earlier attempt to kill me finally caught up with me in the car. They had managed to get away and we were both pleased. Despite the weather it was busy there and poor Angie was suffering, rushed off her feet and very warm. She refused all offers of help from us though. At least she had help in the kitchen. We got our drinks and lunch followed not long after. As usual we enjoyed it very much. Because things were so busy we decided not to hang around so expecting to get away without any argy bargy I went to pay. I hadn’t reckoned on Angie who was adamant I should pay the bill and nothing more who hadn’t reckoned on me who said I always leave a tip to show my appreciation and Suck It ! I won I’m glad to say. If they weren’t worthy of a tip I’d be a lot meaner.
We went home and Mike loaded the car with his suitcase in preparation for the next stage of his journey, to make his Dad suffer like he does me. He tried to persuade me to go to bed but it was a case of Talk to the Hand. I knew there would be a lot of mail. I waved him off and came back where I bumped into a neighbour and then came in and started work. 173 (Thanks a lot peeps) which kept me going until 5.45 pm when I needed a break. I took a tablet and had a piece of toast then turned on a film I’m sure they said was by Quentin Tarantino. A young orphan living in a Paris railway station winding the clocks unknown to anyone else. I’m afraid I was done by 6.45 and gave up. Back into battle. At 8.00 pm I went through to take my tabs and found I’d left the fish tank light on. They were out and didn’t seem to mind me seeing them. I turned it off with abject apologies and came through again for the night. I’ve kept apace with the messages so far but have broken off for this so I don’t knmnow how things are now. I’ll go and have one last effort.
We interrupt this broadcast with a Newsflash. Due to the pleading of the Lord Daud fan club, yes both of them The Snail and East Of Malaga I now have to shock some of you who have a delicate spirit. They require proof that I have indeed purchased and genuinely worn my Mr Men lounge pants. I am going to spare you as much as I can but it was necessary to take a selfie of just one leg. Look away now Ethel.
Stand near the fridge so you don’t overheat (laughing).
Monday. It was 5.12 am today. I consider it a lie-in and a treat.I know I’d been dreaming and as I went through to go to the loo I leaned in to the big bedroom to say something to Ju. It was deflating to see the bed empty and for a second or two I didn’t understand. I suppose it’s just as well Mike wasn’t there or I may have woken him burbling some nonsense or other. Going back to the bedroom and the new computer chair that also catches me out because I go to lean on the arm as I’m used to doing and it’s about 6 inches lower.I fall over. There was such a lot of mail today that when I went through at 7.00 am to see to the fish I had barely dented them. I went through the usual routine and took my coffee back to the bedroom. ( actually now I’m out of bed I should call it the office and make it sound grand).
I’d wrapped most of it up by 9.15 am and went to get washed and dressed so I could take my prescription to the chemist’s. It was really warm out and I was sorry not to have changed to sunglasses. The poor girl I saw in the shop was really warm. Taking a slow walk back was pleasant despite knowing more mail would be waiting. It was. Not a major problem though as today’s pace was going to be slow. At 11.00 am I knocked off for a break and went to see what was on the goggle-box. Sometimes there are interesting programmes on like Who Do You Think You Are. I’m not sure I got as far as turning it on before I nodded off. It was only for 35 minutes but was very welcome. I took my pre-lunch tablet and put some new potatoes on to boil. Cold meat, coleslaw, tomato and wonderful new potatoes. I even managed to stay awake for my antiques prog.
After that it was time to hit the mail again until 2.00 pm when I received a text from Yvonne to say my niece, Mike’s daughter was on her way. She’s over from Poland on a short visit and seeing everyone she can. I have a rough idea how long it takes for a car to get here from Chester so I went outside to meet the car when it was due. Lisa and her son Alex got out and I was amazed how much he’s grown since I last saw him. A quick hug and back inside for drinks and in Alex’s case, liquorice allsorts, chocolate biscuits and an ice lolly. Lisa and I had a good catch up on the rest of her family, especially her mother, and also on her pregnancy since she’s been for a scan. I now know the sex of the baby and can tease Mike since he doesn’t want to know. They stayed with me until almost 5.00 pm then headed off on their next visit. It was lovely to see them.
Next it was back to the dread machine again for an hour. I wanted a break for tea and a little TV so knocked off from 6.00 to 8.00 pm. Unusually for me I watched the news about what’s happening with the plane crash in the Ukraine. I’m devastated for the families of all those killed. I hope they release the bodies soon and treat them with some dignity. I also watched another Antiques Road Trip with two good participants so it was good. Finally at 8.00 pm I turned the box off, took my tablets and came through. I’ve been battling to get straight ever since. Time to have a last go at it before getting some sleep as I’m due out tomorrow to see Yvonne and Reuben.
Tuesday. A 3.50 am day. My pattern seems to have gone to heck just lately but at the end of the day I get up when I get up and that’s that. One day I’m going to surprise Mike and stay in bed longer than him. I started work on the mail and kept an eye on the clock, though I wish I’d taken it with me when I’d gone to the loo. One eye doesn’t improve your aim. At 6.00 am I went through (early) to see to the fish and one of the plecs was dashing about like a mad thing as though he had ants in his pants. At least he settled down to eating when I put the algae wafer in. The plecs are usually very laid back.My favourite fish of all,time ( sorry Olive) was Zippy who I had in a 6 foot tank. He was a rescue pangasius and grew to over 18 inches while I had him. He had to be rehomed with someone with a bigger tank still. He was a catfish and as you can tell from his name was rarely still. But he loved the timbre of my voice ( mahogany in case you want to know) and would come to the edge of the tank for me. So beautiful
Pangasius shark
Olive on the other hand was an oscar I had in a tank in my bedroom. She had a face only a mother ( or me) could love with a big bottom lip like she was sulking.Very, very powerful musculature. She was about 8 inches long when one night I woke to a crash and she’d jumped, thrown the double lid off the tank and landed on the bed with me. She was actually bleeding from contact with the lid but she survived. If I was working and ignoring her she pick gravel from the bottom of the tank in her mouth and spit it at the glass until I paid attention. A few words, a stroke and she was fine again for a while. On the other hand Ju had Ollie, Olive’s nemesis in a tank in her room. They were hell if kept together. And he’d wait for Ju to put her hand in to clean the tank and he’d go for her. More than once he drew blood the little so and so, but Ju adored him.
Olive. Ollie was darker with black streaks.
Ju had 7 tanks in total with all sizes of fish from a 20 inch catfish to a half inch neon. Eventually her arthritis + caused so much trouble she couldn’t manage anymore and we rehomed the fish and the tanks bar the small 32 x 12 x 18 tank I have now with the last 5 fish.
Anyhoo, I fed the monsters, had a piece of toast, took my meds and brought a coffee through. It was now about 6.30 am so I washed and dressed. I shot through the rest of the post as quickly as possible so when 7.25 came I was almost there. I put ‘puter into a deep sleep, got my backpack on , grabbed the bag of things I couldn’t get in the backpack and headed off for the bus stop. I was there in plenty of time as the bus was late. The usual driver wasn’t there but hearing someone chatting to this driver I found out he’s on a fortnights holiday in Sunny Scotland. The journey wasn’t bad in that we made up the lost time but that meant a very jerky Brands Hatch journey. Then when we reached Chester the man turned left instead of right and lost me completely. Eventually I got off in the main street by M & S and had to rush to meet Yvonne. At least she’d gone to the cafe when I said I was late and wasn’t waiting at the bus terminal. I was glad of my latte when I got there. Reuben was smiles all round at fist but a little tetchy later and it looks like apart from having been poorly his mouth is under assault from new teeth again. At least he was fine for me while Yvonne looked at all the new stuff I’d bought him. There were the usual moans to ignore of course.
We left there and went looking round H & M where for once I didn’t find anything for him. I didn’t in NEXT either though I did manage to get Ugo something, and stroppy madam bought herself something. We shopped for food, had a nice drink sitting outside a cafe, I had a milk shake. Eventually I did find something for Reuben and for Yvonne too and two more things for Ugo. Nothing for me today though. After the last shop I decided to go home while Yvonne went and got ready for work. She was swapping the care of Reuben with Ugo at the door of her work and Ugo was coming with him to me. When they arrived Ugo brought me the jacket that Yvonne had scored over me with. A match for last weeks waistcoat. Wonderful, but now I have to start plotting again. Ugo bought a chippie tea, I had sausage with mine, also gravy and mushy peas. I was very careful with the eating as it now looks as though I’ll have a mouth ulcer next. I think I’m run down even though I haven’t stood in front of Mike.
They left about 6.30 pm and I attacked the 184 messages and am still working on them without even a quiz tonight. Do I hear an Awww?
Wednesday. It was an amazing 6.05 am today, nearly 6 full hours with no middle of the night visits. It didn’t help clear the mail though. At 7.00 am I went through to th kitchen having barely made a dent in it. The cory and two of the plecs were waiting so I didn’t keep them waiting long. I had some toast and my tabs then as usual took my coffee back to the bedroom. The coffee seemed to have the opposite effect to it’s reputation, I was continually leaning forward and nodding off over the keyboard. It was so bad at 8.00 am I even went back to bed and did fall asleep. I was back up at 8.35 am though. Thst little boost didn’t do the job and I was still nodding so decided it was time for some fressh air and went to Pauline’s for my TV mag. I did feel better when I came back but I was back dozing at the desk before 10.00 am. If a man falls asleep at his desk and there’s no-one around to hear him, does he really snore? Of course not.
The mail was roughly up to date by 10.55 am so I went and sat in my chair in the lounge. Big mistake, its hot today and the sun is streaming in. Within minutes I’m asleep again, When I finally come to it’s lunchtime and I turn on the TV for the antiques show while I eat. I wash the pots and sit down again. There’s a very strange feeling in my chest like something about to happen but I’m not sure what. The pain isn’t like my angina and the tightness isn’t there. A quirt of my nitro doesn’t do much except give me a headache but by then I’m asleep yet again. It was gone 2.00 pm before I went back to the computer and Oh No, the inbox is full again. I had to stay there until 5.15pm before I got up to date. A few minutes after I’d finished Lee arrived.He’ working from home at the moment and really under pressure. Dil and Matt turned up about 5.30 pm so the crowd all here. I wait until the quiz on TV finished before I bring the card table out and crikey, that hurts. I can’t let Dil do it ass he’s hurt his back and he’d have to move if I got one of the boys to do it.
I decided we’re playing Yahtzee first and that turns out to be a big mistake as my brother who whinged about losing last week gets 3 yahtzees in the first game. While I score less than 200 points having lost my bonus up top, his score is over 600. We play four rounds of this with each of us starting in turn. I did manage one Yahtzee in total but no-one can catch Dil up. The game took quite a while and as we finished Dil suggested Cribbage in pairs. We managed 3 games with Dil and Matt taking 2 to Lee’s and my 1. So perhaps not my best night at games but at least there was some laughter when Lee obviously making allowances for the rate of inflation starts counting Sixteen for one, sixteen for two……. because he’s a novice at crib there was some hilarity when we came out with One for his knob and two for his ball and bat. From now on I think we’ll stick to plain counting. They all left at 9.30 pm and I tidied up and washed pots before coming through to do battle. It’s been hell. The pain is still there, the pain of losing never goes away and now I think I’ve got RSS in my wrists from typing. I hope you all had a nice Wednesday.
I don’t seem to be able to paste a video for you tonight, Sorry.
Thursday. I repeated the 6.05 am again this morning. This time there seemed to be less effort staying awake doing the mail even though there was another boring message from Burkina Faso about my millions and a clever one purporting to be from MBNA on behalf of Virgin credit cards. It might have fooled me if I’d had an account with them. The fish seemed quite happy to see me at 7.00 am which is worrying, I know where I am when they’re angry with me- usually a long distance away. I had the usual toast and my tablets then took the coffee back to work. At some point I got dressed and went for fresh baps. Oh my, it’s like being in the middle of the Nevada Desert with the sun beating down unmercifully on my head and me crying out for a cooling drink, but the pubs aren’t open yet so I go home instead.
I wasn’t sure if someone from the chemist might call this morning so I didn’t hesitate much to open the front door part way. It was a mistake. There were two people, an elderly gentleman and a very pretty lady who did the talking. She’s been before so bear this in mind. As always the conversation started pleasantly, as always I retreat into an utter wreck, shaking and stuttering for Britain. That I’m in difficulties and distress must be obvious. Trouble is I’m not impolite so even if I could have said “Get lost” I wouldn’t. I’m sure there Jehovah’s Witnesses are lovely people out of uniform but it seems once they don the jackboots everyone is fair game. At some stage I was asked some innocuous question to which I was able to answer “But I don’t believe in God” though you’ll have to add a lot more random D’s and B”s to that sentence to get the gist of how it sounded. She asked whether I was perhaps an evolutionist then to which I was able to nod though at this point I was more inclined to go for the Glasgow Kiss in which I’m sure Seumas can educate you. The , “We’ll go in a minute and let you get on” was followed by reading some passages from the bible which were meant to show God was responsible for building my bungalow and for the landscaping. After leaving me some booklets to look at they finally left and my doorstep was clear. I bet if someone was coming from the chemist they took one look, laughed and ran off. I’ve known them for over 5 years and would have been able to talk yet these people tried to make me talk despite the obvious difficulties. I told you to bear in mind the woman had been here before. I managed to tell her last time how difficult it is for me to face new people, to talk to them. I hardly ever open the door to them s I’m beggared if that fella from Burkina Faso ever hand delivers my cash. Yet because this woman , this church, feels the need to invade people’s space they’ll come again and again. Little wonder that people can be rude to them. I swear I’m going to reopen the Buthidar church and go into competition with them. A ‘One Size Fits All’ anti-religion where tolerance, respect, equality, love and above all Hugs is the order of the day.
For lunch I had bangers, new potatoes and peas. I watched the first medal in the Commonwealth Games fall to a Brit (OK, she was English but there were no Welsh contestants). It was for the triathlon and she was magnificent. Then it was back to work to make up for my unscheduled stop. I did have an hours sleep to try and help me recover from the discomfort I’m in and perhaps it worked a bit. I worked again except for a gap to have some tea and a break from 5.15 pm to 7.20 pm but no, I wasn’t eating all that time. I came back through to try and keep abreast of the mail ( Oh, I shouldn’t use that word in my state of health- to keep up with the mail is better). I needed to make sure I could get the post done before having a read. I also want to see if I can understand why youtube is not posting to here anymore.
Still having problems with youtube videos I’m afraid.
Friday. It was a 5.54 am day so the times are still hovering around the 6.00 am mark. Perhaps whoever does the book-keeping for the Gods realises they’ve been making an error for a long time and are trying to make it up to me before I go up and complain. As it happens this favour has put the pressure on a bit with mail but we’ll bypass that. The pain in my chest has receded even more it seems. There isn’t much tightness there either now. I still don’t feel like going out and the urge to dress is missing. I worked until 7.30 am before going through to feed the fish, I tell myself it isn’t because I got carried away and forgot but that they’ve had a couple of late nights since I got carried away and forgot.
Being Friday it was also time to do the weekly tablets ( yes, I’d forgotten that too) so I decided to save time by not having breakfast. I’ll just have to remember to eat tea. That took me until 8.30 am when I was able to go back to work with my coffee. I suddenly remembered that my nephew is coming this morning to collect my African art so I break off to go and take it off the shelves and replace it with all the board games that have taken up station next to the cupboard recently. I leave everything laid out neatly on the settee for him as I don’t know how he’ll want to pack it. I decide maybe I’d better get dressed after all but it can wait till I have my breath back so I sit at the computer with the mail for a few minutes that become half an hour. In fact I’ve not long been dressed before he arrives bringing his wife and little girl with him. I haven’t seen them in a while. Of course I’d covered up most of the available seating so we had to find bags to pack everything into. I offered drinks and they got to looking at the now famous photo wall. The photos made us touch on a couple of sore subjects which aren’t easily solved. I was also reminded that next Saturday I’m invited to a party to meet the Great Niece I didn’t know existed until recently.
They left before lunchtime and I had a further go at the mail before breaking off to make something to eat. A small beef joint and some new potatoes today but I couldn’t finish it all. I watched a little of the Commonwealth Games and then my antiques show before deciding to have a snooze. Oddly no text from Mike yet.That came at 1.30 pm and woke me up I’m glad to say. He’s on his way so I’d better make sure the mail is well under control before he gets there so I don’t have to love him and leave him. Given the usual 3 hours I expect him about 4.30 pm. After that time I start to panic but I don’t want to text and disturb his driving. I was in and out of the pit working a lot while waiting. In the end he arrived after 6.00 pm because of traffic problems. We gassed, put the world to rights and watched TV. Then it was time for the ritual hairwash and my shower. The pain was a little more prominent so Mike helped me dry off, at least he said that’s what he was doing when he kept flicking the towel at me. The worst of it was I’d had to sit down on the karsie by then ( lid down people).
I made us a sandwich which we followed up with dark choc ices and we carried on blethering until 9.00 pm when it was my cue to depart. I’ve made a good hole in the mail and managed to do the blog and it’s not yet midnight. Yay, I’m off for a read. Night all.
Saturday. Things must be getting back to normal since it was a 4.59 am day despite having read till well gone midnight last night. Mike was up even later than me watching something on TV . I didn’t even have any wanderings in the middle of the night so was more than ready to get out of bed when I woke. Because I’d finished a little early last night there was an accumulation of mail from yesterday to finish before I got to today’s. Not that I was too worried as I felt OK at that stage. At about 6.45 am I went through to the kitchen to shine a light on my fishy friends and to take my tablets. I was on my way out to check I had enough tabs to take out in my little pillbox when Mike’s alarm went off. I turned on my heel and went back to make a drink for him. Once done I followed the well trodden path of taking it through and a little louder than necessary, announcing it’s arrival.I checked the pillbox and went back to the kitchen to get my own drink and to empty the bins. Yeah, I nearly emptied the damned things all over the floor when I saw this apparition sitting in Mike’s chair, holding Mike’s coffee and having the cheek to light one of his cigarettes. Not even a second alarm. The little beggar even had the impudence to smirk at me. I almost changed my mind and emptied the rubbish over him except I didn’t fancy the job of cleaning up afterwards. Instead I asked him to put new bags in the bins while I took the full ones out. Then I put the recycling bags out , washed my hands and nipped back to my room to check the mail. Just 6 so I rattled them off and took my drink through to the lounge to keep Mike company ( If it was really him).
With a little gentle cajoling and some outright sarcasm I got him to get ready to go out and we beat our previous best by a few minutes arriving at the Supermarket by 8.05 am. After getting the jackpot on the ATM again we started shopping. There wasn’t a great deal to do but there was a lot of ground to cover so it took a while. We had a coffee afterwards and mine was one of those cold frappe ones with loads of ice so he sat watching me like a hawk hoping I’d get brain freeze. From there we headed to Flint as I’d heard one of our shops has a special on furniture at the moment and I was hoping to get a big brother for the micro bookshelves I bought recently. No joy I’m afraid but we both came out with some unnecessary clothing that was too good a bargain to miss. Then it was time to witness the sexual innuendo and affectionate banter between Mike and our Ceri in Temptations. I swear there are customers on a Saturday morning who just go in to listen to those two charge their horses at each other in joust. It’s almost like peeping through the nets at something naughty happening on the lawn only to find the nets are too thick so you end up having to imagine it. She’s an absolute dream though and so funny.
From there we went home to unpack. I was hoping to see to the mail before we went out again but somehow we ended up on Facebook trying to befriend Ceri and finding she doesn’t have a friend request box anywhere and believe me we looked. I’ll have to wait till we see her and ask her to befriend me instead. By the time we’d both given up in disgust it was time to go for lunch and we were looking forward to finding out if Tariq managed to get the family passports sorted in time to go on holiday. He appeared delighted to see us when we walked in and came round the counter to give us hugs. I still don’t know many men who aren’t afraid to do that. After that Shella came out and passed me a bag which contained some sticks of rock they’d brought back after I’d joked with Tariq about it. I didn’t expect they’d be able to get rock abroad and so was only teasing him. We all burst out laughing but I managed to get a hug and kiss from Shella. I put the chocolates on the counter for Angie, she’s done a great job while they were away. Tariq made our drinks and took the food order while Mike and I went outside into the beautiful sunshine for a cigarette. Lunch didn’t take very long when we were inside. Afetr we’d finished we had a long chat with Tariq and then Shella came to talk to us too. It’s like going to a friends house for lunch. Fortunately as it came time to leave I was able to give the money to Shella who doesn’t argue with me even though she passed it to Tariq I was OK as he was busy with someone else.
As we left I was expecting to head home to do my mail but Mike expressed a wish to go to Llandudno to see our friend. I could hardly refuse so Mike phoned him and turned left out of the gate. The journey was a little short of an hour and we got there to listen to the story of the woman upstairs who’s harassing him for having a dog when she has a cat.I used the term woman instead of lady as I’ve heard some of the language she uses which puts me to shame. We decided to go out for a drink instead of sitting inside in all the heat. That’s probably the last time today I’ll rub it in about our weather . We got to a parking space and walked round to a cafe where I ordered a milkshake it being to warm for coffee…I thought. The sun was shining down but this Queen of Resorts is famous for being a windy city and it’s reputation was well deserved today. The wind was colder than the milkshake, I held the cup to keep warm. When we finished and defrosted, moving back into the sunlit streets without wind it was glorious again. We dropped Brian off at home again and started our own journey so we arrived back at about 6.00 pm. I’ve been in here ever since apart from a ten minute break to wash some pots and to put Ju’s new flowers into vases for her. It’s now getting late.
Sunday. After such a late night I didn’t get up until 5.00 am After turning on the computer and saw how many emails were there from yesterday as well as this morning, I regretted moving. Just as well the Eisteddfod is just once a year. There were hundreds and it took a long time to sort the wheat from the chaff. By the time I’d made any headway it was 8.00 am and I hadn’t fed the fish. My albino cory was not amused and started dashing round the tank as though being chased by the devil or a large shark maybe.
You can almost see the look of disapproval yet he’s only about 2 inches long. Sometimes I get a very dismissive flick of the whiskers. He can be almost as stern as Michael who was a bit dischuffed when he found out whose face was on the cat last night. He issued a very stern warning.
“Don’t do it again” he said. No way was I entering into a My swords bigger than your sword argument because I know how his mind works and anyway he’d probably threaten to produce references from all his paramours so I’d be reading for a week. I’ve known men brag about a different woman for every day of the week, but never before one who adds, 52 weeks of the year. Anyway, stop diverting me, let me get on with the tale. I left the fish feeding and took my meds as I made myself a coffee and prepared a mug for when Mike got up. He’d already warned me he’s have to leave early today as he’s going out for a meal with his Dad his two sisters and his brother in law. I went back to work.
At 9.00 am I heard Mike’s alarm go off so I went and made him a drink and took it through. As usual he’d ignored the alarm and turned over so I made sure he knew the coffee was there. I carried on working. Two more rings of the alarm brings us to 9.30 am and I heard movement. I was practically up to date so I went through to join him. He has the nerve to tell me he’s hardly slept even though he appeared to be well away wen I went to the loo at 1.00 am and again at 5.00 am when I got up. He asked what I wanted to do this morning and when I said I thought he’s have breakfast and leave he answered he was OK for a while yet. In the end we settled on a trip to Flint to check out the Argos sale and to pick up some more chocolates. That was about 10.45 am and we didn’t leave Flint until 11.45 am when we headed straight for The Ivy where we had something to eat and a coffee each. Things were looking a bit more hopeful for Tariq and his family with passports though it’s ridiculous that he has to travel to Peterborough to get the ones they’ve found and he’s going to threaten to stay in the office until they find the others. I have everything crossed I possibly can for them. Mike liked a picture and asked the price. “They’re nothing today” said Tariq. We knew getting a straight answer would be hard. “How about £5, that’s about what it cost me to make. Which one do you want” “I’m not telling you unless I get a sensible answer”said Mike. It went on a while until I said ” How about £10, I’ll get him to say which one he wants if you’ll accept £10.” Even though it was still not the true price he agreed and I handed over £10 and made him put it away before Mike told him. Then the picture Mike wanted was so much bigger and would have been much more than £10 Tariq would brook no arguments. At least when we left today I had no arguments about the price of the meal. The big crisis facing Mike and I is that next Saturday the place is closed as Angie is at a wedding.
Mike dropped me at home at 1.30 pm and shot straight off to Manchester leaving me to face the music of all the waiting mail again. Naturally there was a fair bit and it kept me occupied until almost 5.00 pm.I had a sandwich and then forced myself to eat what was left of the BFG after Mike had been there last night while I was out as I didn’t want to to go off in the heat. The effort I have to go to sometimes. I watched a bit of a film but couldn’t get into it properly partly I think because I’m not much of an Adam Sandler fan.This was better than some I’d seen though. It wasn’t long before I came back to the bedroom and started on messages again along with blog comments and tweets galore. Some of the comments in answer to the great remarks I had on my post from last night. I wish you lot would stop being funny though, you put me to shame. Ah well. Time to finish the last messages of the day and head for my pit. I wish you all a great week.
Piggy Back riding
with Uncle Mike
Monday. It was a 3.05 morning and I’m convinced I should still be in bed and the first sign of nodding, that’s where I’m going. Did I nod? No way. I still hadn’t finished the mail at 7.00 am when I went through to the fish. I think they must all have had an argument as they were in three of the four corners of the tank, with one stuck to the filter in the fourth corner. The smallest one, the fan tailed guppy was swimming quite happily up top waiting for the food trapdoor to open. He was claiming First Dibs. I saw to my drugs and had a piece of toast before taking my coffee back through to the bedroom. The post seems to be never ending today, I wonder if I dare thin out the number of blogs I follow in order to have a life. I’d just about finished at 8.50 am which gave me chance to wash and dress in order to go to the post office. I wanted to post a large, nay Ginormous letter to a friend. I was holding it between my fingers which were wrapped around the handle of my crutch and yet it was almost dragging on the ground. I just hope she’s got a big letterbox.
Back home I put some washing on and then came back to the mail. There was one from delivery firm Hermes who annoy the heck out of me. You have a tracking number and get through to their system which follows the time they received it, when they logged it etc, etc and then you come to one that says Out for Delivery. To me, the customer, that means Great, a courier has it on his van and will deliver today. Accordingly I’ve been in all day. What it actually means is that it’s out for delivery to a courier and even though he may have received it, he hasn’t logged it with himself yet. So tomorrow when I’ve arranged to be out it will probably come. Then because you’re not in you stand the chance of them taking it back again. They need to make their site much clearer and also include telephone numbers . This is the slide I ordered last week for Reuben. I’ll have to leave a note on the door asking them to leave it with a neighbour. I carried on answering mail until I heard the washing machine stop then went and set the drier. I told it a lie and said it was a load of shirts when actually there was a towel in there too. I wonder if it can tell?
At lunchtime I had a cottage pie and an episode of my Antiques programme. At 1.00 pm I thought forty winks were in order so settled down. RATS, the front door. Someone wanting to check a master key on my door in case of emergencies. I tried again and the blasted window cleaner arrived. OK, so no afternoon nap is on the cards today. I might as well work. There are some truly amazing bloggers out there who write purely to inspire and lift others. It’s truly nice to know there are such selfless people around. There are some very informative bloggers who ensure we miss nothing from the world around us be it from a conflict somewhere or a new species of bird found . I’m mostly grateful for the time and effort they expend on the rest of us. There is kindness in the World, and maybe like my friend Rosie’s good example of a good deed a day it will inspire me to be a nicer person.
At 4.30 I packed up intending to have a break so I could have a piece of lemon meringue pie and to watch a couple of quizzes on TV. The first was easy, the second I managed to miss by getting caught up in something else. Then, I managed to nod off and missed the first half of Law and Order. Fortunately it was a repeat anyway as was the next programme, a Murder She Wrote so I turned off and came back through. When I check the mail I see a message purporting to be from a barrister addressed to me by name via Facebook. I don’t usually open mail I don’t recognise but where it’s using my name I thought I better had- wondering who I’d pissed off enough to threaten to sue me this week.
Even the crooks in Benin have got it in for me now. I remember getting a message from Facebook recently to say from now on messages sent to us there would not be stored but would be sent to our email addresses. That’s clever really since the email address this came to isn’t the one I registered with on Facebook. So, in an effort to miss any more of these things I’m going incognito, I hope I can rely on you not to tell.
Now I must go back to my emails to clear as many as possible before going out tomorrow. Night all, I hope my secret is safe in your hands.
In honour of my beloved Ju whose birthday it is tomorrow.
Tuesday. 3.25 am today. Plenty of work to do before going out. The only interruption was at 6.00 am when I did the fish early in case I was attacked and had to hide the wounds. Maybe they weren’t ready for me or perhaps just in a generous mood as I got away scot free. After taking my morning fix I got washed and dressed before taking my coffee through and carrying on with the post. By carrying on I don’t mean a full blown affair, more a dalliance in the stock room. I wasn’t taking it too seriously this morning. Eventually time came to leave the house. I’d donned my leather jacket as it had been raining and the forecast said cloudy and rain today.In fact I feel as though I was wearing a sauna suit it’s been so hot.
We met in the Costa where I already had an iced coffee in front of me because I wanted the points on my card as Tuesday is double points day at the moment. Yvonne had told me that Reuben was full of cold but said the fresh air might help or I’d have put them off. As today is Ju’s birthday I suspect we each wanted to stop the other brooding. I’d taken some Tanzanite earrings of Ju’s and a Wedgewood pendant of my mother’s for Yvonne so she put the earrings in straight away to be close to her mum. We had our drinks while Reuben slept in his pushchair. He’d had no sleep the night before she told me. When we left we took a trip along what are called ‘The Rows’ which are shops on balconies above the main shops of the main street.There are a number of jewellers and they’re very exclusive which translates as expensive. There are also some unusual shops here. Then we went for another drink as Reuben awoke. I was able to have him on my lay while Yvonne got the drinks. He was very sneezy and obviously still tired but tried hard to be smiley for me.
We had a teddy bear made as we left the precinct and then we walked up the main street to Argos to see if some toys I wanted for Reuben were in. They were. By this time I was in need of a wee and we thought it best to get some lunch before carrying on the expedition. Marks and Spencer’s was our choice. Wow, they don’t even do beans with the baked potatoes and still charge a fortune for them but the loos were nice. Such a relief. There were still two or three shops to visit afterwards and I was successful at getting a couple of shirts and a waistcoat for Ugo in one. Unfortunately I lost he smugness game today when Yvonne bought me a waistcoat too. Poor old Reuben’s patience was starting to disappear like a rabbit down a hole and he was beginning to do ear piercing ( well ear-drum at least) exercises with his vocal chords. We thought it best to take him home.Yvonne insisted I went with them and we could resume our Tuesday teatime chip meal after Ugo had run us to my house. I agreed before she started ear piercing on me. Ugo left work but thanks to a mix up in marital communications headed for my house without us. He had to turn round to collect us. We got home. Ugo went to the chippy, I went to my neighbour’s to collect Reuben’s slide which had come and Yvonne was left minding the baby. We had tea, Reuben decorated my floor with most of his and after a tidy up they left.
I came through to see to my messages before they’d even shut the car doors. I confess to being in a panic, but in all fairness I was right, 203 times right. It’s taken all night to reach somewhere near caught up before getting to the blog so tonight no entertainment, no pictures.,just a hope your day has been good.
Wednesday. A dark and early start saw me getting on top of the emails this morning. When I broke off at 7.00 am I was almost there. After throwing a leg of lamb into the fish tank from a distance I took my morning meds and had a piece of toast before taking my coffee through. When I got back some kind of world disaster must have happened because there were almost 100 more messages than when I left 20 minutes earlier. I wonder whether America knows it’s supposed to be in bed. I started again where I’d been at 3.30 am.
By 9.30 am I was back at the almost finished stage. The postman had been and still without my last missing package from China. I’m begining to wonder if this is another one held by our Customs Service to screw extra money out of me. It’s funny though, that usually happens once a year to me but it’s never actually been on one from China so far. Once a year one from China usually doesn’t reach me and it’s always the one with multiple purchases for some reason. If it hasn’t arrived by Friday I have to open a case with ebay and get in touch with the seller. They’re usually excellent at refunding but the annoying thing is I don’t want a refund, I want the goods. To do that I have to start with long delays again and hoping it gets to me. If I do that I risk going beyond the time where ebay will refund for non-delivery. I may have to accept a refund and then either order from them again or choose another supplier of similar items. Since I didn’t have to wait for the postman I decided to go out to Pauline’s for fresh bread and my TV mag.She was quite busy so I joined the queue and listened as she spoke to all her customers as friends. It’s nice.
Back home I was rattling through the rest of the mail when one for a sale at my Saturday Supermarket came up. Naturally since Mike and I have been keeping an eye on the sale in store when we go I found many items had sold out or weren’t available in my size ( obviously the most popular one) but I was lucky to find some jeans I know I like, some slippers I need since one toe is currently peeping through the top of my current pair and a dress shirt complete with bowtie which was reduced to £4. I expected to pay a lot for next day delivery but was amazed to find it was also just £4 even for the 6 items I ordered. Great value.
I knocked off at 11.00 am and went through to the lounge. I needed to think about what I wanted for lunch and I was tired. I nodded off for about half an hour. Before hand I’d decided on bangers with sweet potato mash but now I couldn’t be bothered and settled on a corned beef hash. Small and quick. It was OK and all I needed to wash was my fork. After lunch I was back and forth to the computer to try and keep the mail down as I’d miss 3 hours+ this evening but I couldn’t resist another siesta when the sun was really getting warm through the window. That must have lasted an hour or so from about 3.30 pm. It gave me such a conscience that I darted back through and found loads waiting. I was concentrating so hard that when the door opened I thought Dil and Matt had arrived early. It was in fact 5.50pm. Work stops, play starts.
Once drinks were dealt with Dil got the Yahtzee out to play. We had 3 games. Matt won the first as he got a Yahtzee where both Dil and I crossed it out. I was the lowest in that game losing badly. The next game was mine as despite Matt getting another Yahtzee, I got TWO, and won easily. In the third game there was no quarter given and Matt won again after getting two Yahtzees. We reverted to cards next and went back to Nomination Whist which after having been on the ‘catch up’ most of the game I romped ahead when needed and won. Finally the crib boards came out and the Goddess of luck was smiling on me as she gave me both games as quite easy wins. It was time for Dil and Matt to go. Dil muttering under his breath about seeing me next week ( and it would be his turn to completely thrash us then). I had a quick tidy up, washed the pots and went back to do battle with my email adversaries. It took me till gone midnight to do the blog and to clear the mail to within about a dozen which would have to wait till morning as some required longer answers. I’m knackered now and need a little read before sleep.
Thursday. 3.50 today so a slight improvement though having a late night last night didn’t help. Maybe I shouldn’t have celebrated my wind with extra mouthwashes. Having seen my inbox I’m glad of an early start at it since everyone whose side of the world is now heading for darkness has written to me while I slept. And anyway, the message I had from Asda said my delivery could be any time from 7 am. I doubt I’ll hold my breath though. At 6.30 am I sneaked into the kitchen and turned the light on inn the fish tank. I was hoping that half an hour early might catch them off guard. It didn’t, and one beady red eye was watching my every move. Because of that I moved very quickly. I took a pre-food tablet, had my sprays, swallowed the umpteen other tablets, had a cigarette to time things and then made myself a piece of toast. I was perhaps a little generous with the butter as the first time I tried to take a sip of my coffee, my moustache just slid across the front of the mug. I either had to wash off the excess or save it for sustenance later. I settled on a wash so I could drink my coffee.
I went back to the computer and was working steadily on emptying the mail box as the rest of the world tried to fill it again. At about 8.30 am I decided to get dressed thinking the time of delivery must be getting close now and I didn’t want to open the door in my dressing gown, not that I really have a door in my dressing gown of course. I worked on and on and on until finally at 11.00 am I could work no more. I went through to the lounge to evaluate the patterns on the inside of my eyelids for a short time. It was actually no more than about 15 mins before the phone rang.I decided to peel some sweet potatoes instead, ever the man of adventure me. A bit later I put my sausages under the grill and set my potatoes to boil. Soon enough I had the delights of bangers , sweet potato mash with peas and carrots before me. It was a feast. I washed the pots and settled down in my chair again when I heard a van arrive. Nope, it was the laundry service visiting Joe with all his freshly pressed shirts. One of these days I’m going to empty my laundry basket, and I’ll give it to them to deal with. About ten minutes later the van from Yodel arrived and I knew it was for me. I signed for the parcel and tore at the wrapping as I got it to the lounge. First job, throw old slippers away and don new moccasin ones. I know the jeans are good because I’m wearing a pair and the jeans for Mike look OK too. The dress shirts are great, all I need now is an occasion. My new lounge pants are covered in Mr Men so I won’t be letting anyone see me in those unless it’s Reuben.
I worked most of the afternoon so there could be a TV break this evening. It was 5.45 pm when I knocked off. I managed to see my Law and Order and then turned over to see Jessica Fletcher solve another crime before the police did. I saw the first 5 minutes or so and then totally zonked until the last 5 mins. I suppose I caught the important bits. So, at 8.00 pm it was back through here again and it’s now 10.47 pm and I still haven’t emptied the mail box. Time for one last marathon effort.
Contemplation
Friday. Blah , Blah, Blah early morning. By 7.00 am I was almost abreast of the mail and went to see to the fish. Not a single one in sight.They must be OK as there are no bodies floating but they’re playing mind games with me now, they’re making me panic. I took my tabs and then started to refill the empty container. Thanks to those piscatorial pests I was putting night time ones in daytime slot and verce visa. A ten minute job took a long time…long enough for the 15-20 mins in which I was to eat had passed by. I quickly put some toast on to boil. I opened my mouth as wide as possible and ate as quickly as I could ( according to Mike I’d have got the lot in at once if I’d tried). I made my coffee and took the two after meal tablets . OK, I was up to date. With a last glance at the tank I picked up my coffee and returned to the computer.
Amongst the new set of messages was one from another firm telling me their sale starts tomorrow but as a valued customer I can buy today AND get an extra 10% off at the end. Since I mentioned on Tuesday that my sneaky daughter had bought me a waistcoat, she now informs me she bought the matching jacket. She’s going head to head in the smugness stakes now. But, I decided I’d better get a pair of trousers to wear with the new ensemble so I ordered a pair of brown trousers with a shine like a mirror. If I ever go to a racecourse I’ll blind the horses. ( just the ones I haven’t backed though). I also ordered a new pair of braces since I need something to fight gravity now my waistline has gone. There were a couple of other items in the sale so I went to the checkout and entered my code and paid. Dalmations, the discount hasn’t taken!!!!!!!!! I’ve emailed them to see what went wrong.
A little later I dressed and went to Pauline’s to renew my lottery tickets. I picked up fresh baps and some milk while I was there just in case Mike is coming. I haven’t heard so far. At lunchtime I really couldn’t be bothered with a large meal so I made beans on toast which I haven’t had for ages. Time to hunker down for a nap now or at least as soon as the antiques programme is finished. It finished at 1.00 pm and I’d just stretched my legs out when my phone beeped. Naturally I’d left it in the bedroom. With an exasperated gasp I went to get it. There was the message I’d hoped for “On way”. I went and snored quite happily for an hour.
The mail had built up again in my absence but with Mike due about 4.00 pm I didn’t mind too much. I actually got up to date at 3.50 pm and was able to put the kettle on ready for the arrival which almost exactly on time. The ‘boy’ racer said the traffic had been bad. I settled him down with a drink and we both talked about how our week had been. We watched some quizzes calling out the answers to the screen to see who was fastest. His favourite quiz was missing though due to golf so I left him with Law and Order while I came to try and keep up to date again before my shower. Mike washed my hair in the adverts and I had a shower before changing into the new Mr Men lounge pants and a tee-shirt. NCIS was next on his menu and when a second episode came on I went to make him a meal of a lamb shank and some sweet potato mash, he said that was adequate veg. At 9.00 pm I came through for the night to keep the mail as up to date as possible and to get the blog on. I think it’s back to it again now because it’s an early start for shopping tomorrow. Can you hear the sarcastic laughter?
Saturday. I didn’t move my lazy ass today until 5.45 am. ( I bet you didn’t know I had a donkey did you?) I had only an hour answering the millions of comments from last night’s blog as well as other emails before it was time to feed the fish and prepare to make Mike his coffee. One fish allowed itself to be seen this morning but I swear he was just keeping cavey for the rest. By 7.00am I’d had my tablets and made a cup of coffee for myself. The lketttle was boiling awaiting the sound of the alarm from Mike’s room. By five past I’d heard nothing so I made the drink and took it through. My cheerful greeting was only tolerated without a well aimed show for two reasons. 1. It was his coffee I was holding. and 2 He just grunted but didn’t wake up. I took my coffee through and continued to tap away at the keyboard.
At about 7.20 I heard the sound of the loo being flushed and my intuition being what it is along with my deductive powers, I decided it was much more likely to be Mike than the fish. He was up and I hadn’t heard the alarm go off at all. I closed the screen down and went through to join him in the lounge. I was only able to join him bodily as his senses had yet again deserted him as he slept on the edge of the chair gradually leaning further forward until soon gravity would do it’s job and leave him splattered on my floor. I wouldn’t mind but he’d be a beggar to hoover. A quick (loud) cough and he woke up.We were out of the house with seconds to spare before 8.00 am.
The main shopping didn’t take too long but the delays I caused looking at children’s clothes did I’m afraid. My trolley was starting to look like Reuben’s lucky day. And of course I was expecting a delivery of clothes I’d bough for him online, today. We had a coffee after shopping while we decided the next move. I’d mentioned to Mike last night that I wouldn’t mind going to a certain shop with a sale that started today. He agreed and so we headed off there. Yet again Reuben was at the forefront of my mind and struck lucky. Mike also found a suit in a wonderful colour. I’m sure he’d have had a second one in another colour had the jacket been the right size. This wasn’t the branch of the shop I’d originally thought of and there was nowhere to eat close by so Mike suggested we visit the second branch where there are plenty of eateries. I had no problem agreeing since the word SALE is like a magnet to my poor addled brain.
We hit the other branch and came up with yet more things for Reuben though poor Mike was disappointed with his suit here as they had none of them. I did buy him a pair of shoes as compensation though were really nice.I got some braces and a couple of belts. We headed off for lunch and celebrated with a pudding today. The weather outside was awful with rain bouncing down ( or up) so we stayed in the cafe till it eased. Mike was proud that he got me out without me spending anything. We did however go to another shop before heading home and I was allowed to spend there in case my pockets healed up.
At home there was no sign of my recycling bags after the bin men had been. For all I knew they could have refused to bring them back in the lousy weather. We put the shopping away and I checked the door to see if there was a not from the delivery men to say they’d been. I was a little dejected to find nothing. Mike felt unwell and went to bed so I started to catch up with today’s 200+messages. It was about an hour in when I saw a message from one firm saying the goods were being delivered today. Checking the trace I found the package had been signed for. Yay, they’re next door with Bert. The weather was clearing nicely and the ground looked almost dry.I went out and actually met Bert who’d just seen his son off in the car. He told me where my recycling bags were and that he had two parcels for me. You’d have thought it was my birthday. Everything was fantastic and I think the trousers I’d ordered will go nicely colour-wise with the waistcoat and jacket from my bolshie daughter.
At 5.45 pm I’d all but caught up and decided to have a break for a while. I turned to the TV for Who Do You Think You Are which takes celebrities on a journey into the history if their family. It can be quite fascinating. Mike came through so when it ended I turned over for the Grand Prix qualifiers and the news. Then we watched Lewis . We had sandwiches and a small cake in the intervals. At 9.00 pm I deserted Mike and came through for the next battle in the message war. I think it’s going to be a long night.
David found a surgeon who could turn him into a hamster. Now he could store his chocolate properly.
Sweet, witty, mischievous… For the first time, David Prosser, the author of the gloriously funny Barsetshire Diaries, brings his well-known sense of humor and kindly disposition into the world of children books. Well, it’s about time, I say, since the result is an enchanting book of poems about delightful animals who lead very active and interesting lives. Children will adore them, and the adults who might read it to them will giggle over them because not everything is as it seems… The book is available as both a print book and an e-book, both are lovely and eminently suitable as a gift. Enjoy!
Kindle UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tall-Animal-Tales-Toddlers-Up-ebook/dp/B00LTG4FFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405717041&sr=8-1&keywords=Tall+Animal+Tales+for+Toddlers+%26+Up
Amazon India http://www.amazon.in/Tall-Animal-Tales-Toddlers-Up/dp/1291756825/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405717610&sr=8-2&keywords=Tall+Animal+Tales+for+Toddlers+%26+Up
Kindle India. http://www.amazon.in/Tall-Animal-Tales-Toddlers-Up-ebook/dp/B00LTG4FFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405717610&sr=8-1&keywords=Tall+Animal+Tales+for+Toddlers+%26+Up
Amazon France http://www.amazon.fr/Tall-Animal-Tales-Toddlers-amp/dp/1291756825/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1405717782&sr=8-2&keywords=Tall+Animal+Tales+for+Toddlers+%26+Up
Kindle France. http://www.amazon.fr/Tall-Animal-Tales-Toddlers-English-ebook/dp/B00LTG4FFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405588960&sr=8-1&keywords=Tall+Animal+Tales+for+Toddlers+%26+Up
Kindle Europe. http://www.amazon.de/Tall-Animal-Tales-Toddlers-English-ebook/dp/B00LTG4FFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405717341&sr=8-1&keywords=Tall+Animal+Tales+for+Toddl
Sunday,I was sure it wasn’t an auspicious start to the day when I didn’t rise until 5.30 am. Sundays I never mind the early start because of the blog comments that give me pleasure (usually). This morning was no exception but there weren’t too many though they gathered pace as the day went on. At 7.00 am I went to feed the fish but like most Sundays I was being ignored because of their privations the day before. I always wonder if they hold meetings when the light goes off on a Saturday night to see how they’ll react in the morning or whether they all independently come to the same reaction towards me. Maybe they all get high on air and have Sunday hangovers? I took my coffee back to the bedroom bypassing Mike’s room where he was busy with a jackhammer I think. No way I was going to get any response that I could write about on a family blog so I didn’t even try. The sun might be shining but there’s been no mention of a car boot sale. I carried on working steadily keeping apace with new messages until about 9.00 am when I decided to get washed and dressed. I slammed the loo seat a few times for effect but all that got me was a leak and a headache. I decided to have another go at my new app. I need to get the pictures I change on the computer to transfer to my desktop as a jpeg file. Personally I think the fish own this app and have sorted it to thwart me at every turn. I will not be beaten! Eventually I was beaten. Time to make Mike a coffee and see if I can get him to move. I took it through and put it on the bedside cabinet and said “Coffee’s up bro, it’s cowboy time”. * * For those who don’t know, Cowboy time is Ten to Ten. Just listen to the William Tell Overture or The Lone Ranger theme and you’ll see why. Ten to ten to ten to ten, etc. There was no immediate movement but I’d lit the blue touch paper so it was time to retire. It must have sunk in because he joined me in the lounge about five minutes later. I returned to my pit to do some printing to fill three frames I bought yesterday. Then as I took them through I assessed him to see whether he was awake or not before asking a favour. I needed more ink and more photo paper. He said OK though it didn’t change his speed one iota and it was 11.00 am before we got out. We ended up going to the Argos in Flint where the inks were at least £1 cheaper each and the paper was a bogof offer. Magic. We had a look in a Supermarket just to check prices and I found a sale on nice gifts for Yvonne. On the way in I jokingly told Mike I was having trouble with the forecasted rain ( sarcasm dripping from my chin) since it was so hot. He made a cutting my throat gesture to say don’t wish it on us. When we came out the seats were wet and he looked daggers- nay , full bladed broadswords at me. We headed off for lunch. There were a few cars parked at the Ivy but not so many people inside. Things did improve despite our presence though. Tariq came for his usual hugs, at least I convinced someone how important they are. He made our drinks while we checked the menu so that we were ready to order as the drinks arrived. Angie waved hello from behind the counter and thanked us for the chocolates and Shella passed by waving as she did so which was quite remarkable carrying two bowls of soup. There was a woman at the next table bewailing the portents to her partner, ” I feel doom approaching. The gathering storm is bringing strife…” “Oh you were expecting my brother then” I said earning myself two glares, one from her and one from the person kicking my shins. The meal arrived and it was lovely. He can’t have had more chips than me as I suspected because we finished at the same time and then went out for a cigarette. When we came back in there was a piece of lemon meringue pie in my spot. Mike had ordered it before we left knowing that if he wasn’t having a pudding I wouldn’t bother. I didn’t really want it but it would have been so rude of me to refuse at that stage wouldn’t it. As we were about to leave I went to pay and was prepared for the usual argy bargy with Tariq but another customer chose that moment to pay so I was able to leave the money on the counter and make my escape. Mike drove me home and then left on the next stage of his homeward journey and I settled at the computer to catch up on 5 hours worth of messages. I broke off at 6.00 pm to have some toast to take my next tablets with and watched part of a film. An advert came on to remind me to watch The Nation’s Favourite Motown Song at 9.00 pm. As a big lover of my Motown I didn’t want to miss that that I came back through to catch up on mail until then. The answer not unexpectedly was Heard it Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye but I was disappointed at the choice of presenter of the programme and that they played so few songs in the hour and a half it was on, less far too many interruptions for adverts. There will never be another phenomenon like Motown I’m sure. And the nicest thing for me was some of the artists saying how much they loved the UK because they were always greeted by crowds who didn’t seem to notice their colour. Did they have one?
‘Brother’ Mike
Monday. I’d finished the first batch of mail by 6.10 am and decided to go through to the lounge. The minute I got there I knew I should have stayed where I was and tried to master the complexities of this phone and the app on this phone. Over the weekend we’d worked out that I could send emails to myself of the pictures I changed if I was actually close to the computer at the time. I had the perfect way of finding out. I took a picture of the newly completed photo wall at home and decided to send that to Yvonne who hasn’t seen it. She wouldn’t be able to make out the individual pictures but would have an idea of how it looked. Where in the past I’d have had a tape measure to make sure things were evenly spaced and everything would be about balance, now I’ve thrown off ( well OK , stored tidily in a drawer) the OCD yoke and gone for a completely random structure.
Photo wall
I went through to the bedroom and sent myself the pictures. Whilst I was waiting and as it was now 7.00 am I decided to feed the fish and follow the usual routines. Before leaving the kitchen with my coffee I put a load of washing on, due out at 08.30 am. That done I went to check the emails. Plenty there to answer but nothimng from me to me on either email address. I decided to be patient because I know nothing about replastering walls, and settled to clearing the messages in my box. I’d done just before 8.30 am so I went to turn the drier on so the stuff would be ready for me to fold about midday. Then I got dressed and took my repeat prescription request to the chemist. The post had arrived as I got back, still no final parcel from China, still nothing from the ebay purchase of the dragon clock though that’s no surprise. What I did have was an invitation from British Telecom to go on fibre optic broadband for a bargain sum for 6 months and then roughly what I pay now. Such a shame I’m tied into a 2 year contract with this supplier. I ran the hoover round and found myself getting less my usual calm self when it was picking up on some surfaces but not others. It made the job so much harder than it needs be. I really must see about getting a Mrs Mop to help me out. After putting the hoover away calling it’ legitimacy into question I went back on the computer. Instead of tackling the mounting mail I started playing around with frames, animal faces and changing pictures into watercolours. I quite liked the effect. There was one effect for an antique oil painting but I wasn’t too taken with that.
Watercolour Wedding
Almost Human.
I was having a lot of fun and losing track of the time. I admonished myself and started on the mail. There were plenty more comments on this weeks blog which was nice and I hope I repaid some of that kindness by tweeting blogs and books and commenting on blogs too. I worked out that my tweets have the potential to hit 3000 followers, but if just 10 of them tweet and they have an average of 3000 each it goes a long way. I see writers with 20, 000+ followers on Twitter. I’m also a member of a very supportive writers group ASMSG which has the potential to hit over three million followers. That’s possibly a lot of sales even if 1% of 1% buy. The drier stopped and I went through to take the stuff out and fold it . I had to get a ladder out to get it on the i***ing pile. For lunch I had some nice ham with mashed potatoes and beans. The mouth is still sore but I think it’s burst now and is probably improving. I may have to look for the recommended Smirnoff blue to rinse with though. After washing up I watched the rest of my antiques programme then turned off and went to sleep in my chair. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds since there was a helicopter hovering overhead for a long time. All I can say with any surety is it’s not me they’re looking for. There are only two around, the coastguard which would be wasting it’s time over my place as I’m still above water, and the police one is the other. After eventually dozing off and getting a nice hour I came back to catch up on mail. The photos from the phone still weren’t through. I worked till 5.30 pm them went and had some strawberries for tea and caught my Law and Order and another mystery series until 8.00 pm when I came through. The pictures had finally arrived. I’ve spent some time catching up again and now I’m off to check ebay.
The boys I’m going to see on Saturday at the Eisteddfod in Llangollen.
Tuesday. My night was a bit weird with very real feeling dreams. I’m sure I was very restless but at least it meant I didn’t move until 5.11 am. Less time for me to worry about going out and talking myself out of it. I answered emails until 6.30 am then tried to catch the fish out half an hour early. It was so dull this morning that I couldn’t see clearly and had to put the light on. That was it, they behaved normally now. Recently the sun has been shining well before this but the forecast wasn’t good. I took my tabs and made a coffee.As I was carrying it back through the heaven’s opened and I heard the rain bounce on the roof. An opportunity to cancel? Not a cat in hells chance, ten minutes later it was over and the sun even shone a bit. I got dressed and continued with the mail. By 7.15 I was up to date and I packed my haversack with one of Reuben’s books and sorted a bag of things I’d bought on Sunday for Yvonne. I’d texted her to say I was coming when down came the rain again. Not heavy this time, just a slow drizzle. I should be able to manage in my leather jacket rather than the crop duster. At 7.30 am I girded my loins and left. The journey wasn’t bad and there was no rain as I arrived in Chester. I was able to get money from a cash machine and head for the Costa where we were meeting. I was there first so I ordered a small latte and a cold concoction of green tea, lime and mint. The young lady said she’d bring it over and as my usual seat was occupied ( inconsiderate person) I had to find another behind a half wall and I was afraid Yvonne wouldn’t spot me so I stood. When she arrived it was raining again , just as well she had a brolly. I got Reuben out as Yvonne went to order drinks and toast. He was in good form with me, very smiley, but no smiles for Mummy. As usual it seemed he had more hands than Kali, glasses, cigarettes, drink, any thing was a target so he went in a high chair to eat his toast and let us eat ours in relative peace. I may have mentioned before that sometimes my hands are quite shaky. Yvonne seems to treat it as an entertainment laid on for her as my hands jerk across the front of my mouth, missing it but leaving a buttery path, or watching me hold a coffee and try to take a sip with the downward motion as I’m also trying to froth it . We left there and headed for the precinct as I had a little shopping list with me today. I’d passed over the gifts to Yvonne so my backpack was empty now. We headed into a shop that had kids clothes and I had a great time buying stuff. Yvonne thought she could outsmart the old fox and held some things back she said she’d pay for. Nothing would persuade her to give me them. I paid for mine then passed over an extra £20 and asked the young man to pay for the next batch out of that. When Yvonne went up she told me she was feeling quite smug at having beaten me for once. Ta Dah. I take a bow and smugness takes a walk. As we approached the exit to the precinct we could see the rain was bouncing off the pavements really hard. We hit another shop and found another sale. I managed to find some more great things for him. Yvonne gave up in there. As we came out the rain had stopped. Next stop Tesco for some fresh bread and for my antiseptic vodka. By then it was lunchtime so to Pizza Express where Yvonne beat me to the check. It was fast approaching the time where she would have to depart for work and me for home so we did the last two shops in quick order, one to get light bulbs for my room and one to get part of my son’s birthday present. I just hope Reuben doesn’t spill the beans to him. Outside I convinced Yvonne not to walk me to the bus stop, I’d manage. It was time for hugs and kisses. I turned round to give Reuben a kiss . His pushchair was quite low and in the reclining position so I had top bend quite far to reach his forehead. I just reached the point where my lips connected with his skin and I knew I was in trouble. I couldn’t get back up, and I was trying to fight going further down but it looked like gravity was winning and any second I’d be lying on top of Reuben and the pushchair would probably be on it’s side. I tried a casual scream at Yvonne as I didn’t want to worry her and she ran to grasp the belt on my coat. Or would have done had it been there. She had to drag my coat in one hand and backpack in the other to get me upright. It must have looked like I was being mugged except the mugger was laughing and saying ” Don’t, you’ll make me wet myself.” We parted. I made my way to the bus stop in what was now roaring sunshine and I was melting inside my leather coat held on firmly by my backpack. When the bus came the disabled seats were taken and I struggled to remove the backpack in the confines of a normal seat until I could get the coat off. The journey was short because the heat made me nod off a lot. Back at home there were 122 messages waiting and IO got stuck in, but not before reading a delightful postcard received from fellow blogger Paula Acton from a trip she and her family made to Stratford upon Avon. I’m still surprised someone would bother to include me but I’m truly chuffed and moved by it. At 6.00 pm I had my usual two hours of TV before returning to battle with the technology that saved my life.
Wednesday. From a 3.53 am start I was going great guns with the mail when all of a sudden at almost 6.00 am I found I was tired. Hopping back on the bed wasn’t a difficult decision and I was soon away with the fairies. They kept me entertained until 7.50 am when I realised as I woke how late I was for the fish. I shot through to the kitchen and approached the tank very gingerly. I have no idea why, but I needn’t have worried. I got the normal reaction as though no delay had been noted. Maybe they were enjoying the warmth and light of the sun coming through the window. I’m afraid I feel disgust with myself and broadening girth but I had two jam doughnuts for breakfast as they were handy and easy to eat, I took my tablets and sprays then made myself the usual coffee ( Columbian) and took it back to the bedroom. I dressed quite quickly as I needed to go to Pauline’s. At 9.30 am I went and bought my TV magazine and some cigarettes. The sun was wonderful and for some reason I had this sudden urge to go to Flint for more photo frames. Back at home I put my stuff away and grabbed a bag to take with me. I opened the door, stepped out, locked it and walked about three steps before deciding perhaps not today and letting myself back in. I attacked the mail again but the thought of getting more frames kept nagging at me. Should I text Lis and see if she’s free to take me? I decided that wouldn’t be fair. Meanwhile the time for the next bus passed and I worked some more on the mail. The postman came and delivered a postcard with a picture of me and Reuben on the front taken just yesterday. Another great app of Yvonne’s. With 15 minutes before the next bus I put my shoes on and made myself open the door again. All the while I’m saying it’s getting late and nearly lunchtime, but I still found myself walking towards the bus stop. I made it though skittish because others were at the stop and when the bus arrived I let them all get on first. One last push and I was aboard with sweat running down my forehead. As we approached Flint I rang the bell to get off one stop before most people and then as the bus pulled away I made my way over the dual carriageway to the shops. The first one was the supermarket where I got the other frames on Sunday and I was lucky they still had some. I chose two black and a white this time. Next I wandered round to my favourite Home Bargains and got some chocolates. I also found two more frames which will prove useful and they were a real bargain. From there I went for coffee at Temptations. They were really busy but I managed to pass chocolates over and the young lady said she’d bring my drink to the table. Major surprise to see me in there alone. I wandered off to the bus stop from there and caught one at 12.15 pm and headed home. I wasn’t hungry when I got off the bus and couldn’t think of cooking so I ordered sandwiches from a local shop which I had after I got home. I was able to eat them at my desk as I worked. In fact there was so much mail I worked all afternoon except for a little break from 3.00 – 4.00 pm when I started watching Zulu for the Welsh singing. I have to say though that the Zulu Impis have a strong vocal rhythm too and I enjoyed listening to them. I knocked off again at 5.15 pm and went to watch the quiz and wait for my gamers. Traffic was bad and they didn’t get here until 6.00 pm. Lee had cried off by text during the afternoon unfortunately. We set up for Yahtzee and I won the first two games and Dil the third. For a change we went to Trivial Pursuit next which lasted the rest of the evening with Matt eventually winning. So this time the honours were pretty even. After they left at 9.30 pm I tidied up, washed the pots, took my tablets and came through to see the damage. 103 but I’ll cope with that. But just in case, I’m doing the blog halfway through.
Smiler
Face to Face. ( Sorry about being unshaven).
Thursday. At least one fish was pleased to see me this morning. The little molly came shooting over as I opened the food flap and stayed close as I spouted endearments at her. I know it’s only the pitch of my voice that attracts her really but I get into such trouble with them I’m clutching at straws. I’d made real headway with the post before coming through that I considered a break but then common sense got a hold so I took my meds, had some toast and then carried the coffee through. The mouth feels so much better today using this mouthwash but the hangovers are bad. Maybe I should accidentally swallow less of it? I took things very easily, many of my abroad bloggers might be heading for their beds while many of the European ones might only just be getting up. It felt like a time when I wouldn’t be getting much. I always had this ridiculous optimism brought about by wearing rose-tinted glasses. But in fairness things weren’t too bad for a few minutes. I checked the lottery and realised it would still be emails rather than personal visits, got washed and dressed and went out to Pauline’s to renew the tickets. I also got some fresh baps for later. When I got back I reverted to house scruffs and mopped the kitchen floor after washing up the breakfast things. That out of the way it was back to the grindstone though passing the front door I found a letter trying to sell me life insurance which I diverted to dump in the recycling.
I worked on until 11.30 am then knocked off to go and prepare lunch. A favourite again today of bangers, mash and beans. I enjoyed it while sitting with Bargain Hunt on the TV. I washed up again then donned my shoes and headed off for the chemist, wondering what had happened to my prescription request from Monday. While I was waiting, Chris from the Post Office told me his wife Rosetta had been too mean to share any sweets from the box I gave her, with him. I’m sure it’s not true but it’s a great opportunity to tease her when I see her next. The young lady from the chemists found my drugs in a box slated for delivery so I was happy to relieve her of them. Back at home it was back to work and it kept me going till 3.00 pm when I decided a snooze was in order. The weather is so nice the heat is sending me to sleep. I slept until 4.50 pm and had to give up the usual quiz in order to catch up again. At 6.00 pm I made a ham bap and watched a couple of older episodes of Big Bang Theory in preparation for 8.00 pm. I then sat through an even older Murder She Wrote before my final episode of this series of Big Bang Theory came on. What a blow. What the heck am I supposed to do with Thursday nights now?
Back in the pit again I was surprised that 119 emails had accrued again and I made myself sit down and concentrate. That lasted about 5 minutes when I suddenly decided to have a shave????? and followed that up with eating an ice lolly. Lacking further excuses I set to work. I was fairly zipping through them when I decided I’d better do this before it gets too late and I get carried away with the music. So, that’s my day and here comes my music.
The start of the protest era. A time I really thought the world stood a chance because people cared enough to change things.
Friday. It was 4.50 am before I surfaced this morning but being the daredevil I am I just said”Pffttt” and ignored the urge to panic. I am master of my own life and author of my own density, yes, I’m as thick as two short planks as shown by my idiocy in following another 6 blogs this morning and leaving myself open to even more mail. By 7.00 am I was only halfway through the morning post but had to break away to feed the fish. The albino catfish sat by the glass watching me while I did the food and it fair freaked me out those beady red eyes on me. I tried talking nicely to it but that didn’t shift it so I threw the tub in and backed off. I took my meds and as that emptied the container had to make them up again for the week. I just said “Right, there’s one in that hole and two in that and this one id full of hashish, you can’t get much more made up than that.” It does actually take a while to do. I have to carry a drawer through, make sure I refill the empty boxes from the new stock I collected yesterday and then fill the containers from what I have. It’s usually 1 before breakfast then two after, 8 tabs and two sprays. One before lunch and two after then two main tabs, two again at about teatime them 9 in the evening with a spray. There are also two sprays for use during the day as needed. I really do shake, rattle and roll.
I couldn’t be bothered with breakfast this morning so once my tabs were sorted I took my coffee through to continue work. No rush to get dressed as I’m not going out early. I had the pleasure of as post by my friend Elaine who cracks great Friday jokes, a post from the delightful Olga who always introduces somebody new to interview, great book blogs by Maggie, fun reminders from Teagan and so many more pleasurable pieces including inane messages between myself and a great friend in Australia. My day is a delight of variety but it does come at a price- time! Re-tweeting and commenting eats into the day. Towards lunchtime I heard from my cack-handed daughter that she’d broken her iphone again. twice in as many weeks. I’m going to see if they make them in rubber. I transferred some money to her account as a treat and spent what seemed like the next three days arguing about it. She threatens a tennis match of it going back and forth between our accounts, I being the bullied elderly gentleman just threaten to kneecap her. She says they’re coming over to see us tomorrow and I expect arguments about who pays for lunch. No matter how much I try, I can’t force her to do it. LOL. Truth be told she’ll want to pay and so will I, and I know I can afford it better than she/they can having a baby to feed. Especially when that baby is my grandson.
I didn’t have lunch at home as Mike was/is due about 2.00 pm. He was just about on time. Like me he hadn’t eaten so I put a shirt on over my t-shirt and off we went. Of course when we arrived I’d completely forgotten chocolates and my tablets. Neither thing put me off my meal though. Tariq was a little more subdued than usual as the passport office has had the family passports for 7 weeks and has no idea where they are or what stage they’re at and the family are due to fly on holiday on Wednesday. It’s a sickener to think that a bureaucracy like that can cost someone a holiday, refuse compensation and an apology. Mike and I have got our fingers crossed that they’ll arrive by Monday at the latest. We left there without a fight as Tariq was chatting to some more customers. Although he excused himself to show us to the door…and note the word to in there please, he couldn’t fight as I’d left the money on the counter. The sun was glorious so Mike ran us to Flint where I picked up yet more frames for my rogues gallery, some tablets for the washing machine ( it gets headaches) some chocolates to take tomorrow and then we came home. Mike set about adjusting the inner to accommodate a large picture in a frame then promptly broke the glass on the next one. I concentrated on bringing the mail up to date so I could join him in the lounge. I managed it in time for the last half of a quiz. I made a sandwich so I could finally take the diabetic tablets forgotten all day then at 9.00 pm abandoned the lounge to deal with this blog post and the rest of the mail. The mail may beat me as it’s almost midnight now.
Saturday. It’s been a long day. It started at 4.50 am and it’s now 11.55 pm and I’ve not touched the emails all evening. I was doing well this morning as I was up to date and gloating well before 7.00 am, so much so that I went through to see to the fish tank light and decided to feed them even though it’s Saturday. They saw straight through me and wouldn’t hover while I bragged about how clever I was. I put the makings in Mike’s mug ( the china one, not his face) and boiled the kettle up while I saw to my meds and making my own coffee. The second his alarm started to ring I poured it out and appeared in his bedroom before he’s had chance to turn it off. “Morning Bro, coffee’s up” sez I , “Grunt” sez he. “It’s on the side here, don’t let it go cold” I tried, hoping my voice had penetrated his unconsciousness , “grunt” sez he. It was OK though, I have patience. I took my own drink through to my bedroom and hit the emails again. For a change they didn’t hit back and were manageable.
Within a few minuted Mike’s alarm started it’s second call. I know he spoke to it but it certainly wasn’t to say “Yes, I’m moving” and it’s call seemed to be cut short. I called out for him not to forget his drink again and I got a response. I didn’t know you could flip the bird at someone in our sleep till now. My mail was up to date so I decided to choose some photographs for printing later. There were four frames I wanted to fill. His alarm went off for the third time and as there was no movement I knew I’d lost. I might as well print the pictures ready.I don’t know what happened but next minute he appeared at my door washed, dressed, coat on and bags in hand ready to go. Naturally I was the one not ready now. I put my shoes on while the last two pictures printed and tried my best to look subdued. As the pictures rolled off the production line I turned the printer off and we left.
We didn’t spend long in the Supermarket as I still had most of last weeks food left. Dry as I was when we finished he wouldn’t let me have a coffee. I should have known I’d pay for being smug this morning. We went to Flint where I was able to pick a few things up for Yvonne and Ugo then we had a coffee at Temptations. Appropriate today as I’m off to see Richard and Adam tonight whom I’d named the Toastie Tenors when I wrote about them in my first book.They came third in last year’s Britain’s got talent. Ju would have loved to have seen that as she was a big fan. We came home and after unpacking had a message from Yvonne ton say they were running a bit late. So, Mike and I hung the new pictures. I think the photo wall ( Rogue’s gallery) is looking pretty good. Since time was cracking on I suggested they meat us at The Ivy, as the time was getting on she agreed so Mike and I set off from here at 11.40 am. We were actually there within a few minutes of each other so I was able to order drinks and meals fairly quickly. Reuben was having a chocolate milkshake which oddly enough he didn’t take too, and a cheesy pasta dish which he loved. When we’d done I tried getting Angie to calculate the bill but she said Tariq would do it and brought him in from the kitchen. There ensued the usual battle of wills which I won in the end. We all left and went to my house to drop the cars off and we walked from home to the Heritage Park which is very close. We took Reuben round to see the animals, mainly young chicks ( which thought made Mike drool till I said the birds were of he feathered variety). Reuben had a go on a small tractor and onthe park swings before we went to the park cafe for a cuppa. He was as good as gold despite being tired.
We finally parted company at about 4.30 pm and I laid into the accumulated emails. I was being picked up at 5.45 pm to go to the Eisteddfod to see the boys and also listen to some choirs and see some dancers before the competition for the best of the week was announced. My friend John and his wife Vivienne collected me on time and we were there for 6.45. Time for a cuppa before the show started at 7.30 pm. Richard and Adan sang three songs at the start of the evening before two dance teams were introduced one after the other. An Irish traditional dance troupe and a Scottish one. At the end of the night the Irish one won the trophy. Then came five choirs of singers each singing 5 songs. I really enjoyed the Welsh mixed sex choir best of all but a choir from Argentina was adjudged the winner. Richard and Adam came on to do three more songs one of which I recommend they never do again which was Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers. It wasn’t suited to their style of singing at all in my opinion. It wasn’t meant to be too operatic, though they did well in the close harmony. My favourite was Somewhere from West Side Story though P.J.Proby remains my all time favorite.
It was 11.30 pm before John dropped me off. I’d enjoyed his ( their) company and enjoyed the outing but my nerves were on edge a lot. I didn’t have a cigarette for 6 hours and I hadn’t had a wee either because I couldn’t wander in the crowds alone. I had a quick sarnie, took my tabs and traded a few insults with my bro before coming through here. The emails will have to wait until morning now as it’s 12.45 and I want my bed.
Sunday. I’m thinking it’s time to get my eyes tested again. I got out of bed this morning at 5.05 am , went to the loo, came back and turned the computer on. It was 3.10 am. Trouble was I was awake by then. I was thinking of asking Mike to get up but I’ve become rather attached to my kneecaps. Instead I worked. There were already plenty of nice comments from last night’s blog. It makes me feel like carrying on ( Hey, who shouted ‘Stop encouraging him’?) I’m glad to see the Nat West staff are eager and on the ball. Working on a Sunday just to let me know my account is suspended. Makes me feel really guilty for not having one now.
I had breakfast at 6.00 am today , after I’d fed the piranhas of course. I’m a liar and I’ve only just remembered, I didn’t have breakfast this morning. I thought I’d take the tablets at tea time instead and totally forgot. But I digress, I fed the fish, had meds and brought a coffee through. After I’d drunk it I decided to lie down fr a while which was about 6.30 am and slept through to 7.40 am. Then it was back to the new emails again. Because Mike had turned his TV off early last night I thought he might be up early today, but as Confuscius say, Lazy Git is Lazy Git at all hours and doesn’t rise with the sun. I have of course no idea what that means except he didn’t get up until gone 9.00 am, that’s TEN AND A HALF HOURS !!!!!! Still, I don’t begrudge him. ( This lying lark is getting so much easier with practice). We decided to give up the idea of going into the small loft for books today in favour of going out for fish food and some gift wrap plus the ever important square box of tissues. So Mike got dressed and we were out of the house about 10.15 am. We went to Flint where I got everything bar the fish food in one shop and the fish food next door. Then we headed to look at TV’s and TV stands for Mike before heading for a coffee. We know Ceri is away this weekend so he’ll have to sharpen his wit on someone else.
Outside Temptations Mike started talking to a man with an Alsation dog.He (the dog) was big and beautiful, quite tall. I found out just how tall when my attention was distracted when the dog stuck his nose under my nadgers and lifted his head quickly. I nearly left the floor so strong was the push and so delicate were my meat and two veg. Mike burst out laughing naturally. As we reached the doorway he stepped to one side and said “Cripples first” I just added “And sopranos”. Two boys were on the counter this morning. I passed the sweets over and the drinks were prepared without me having to say what. I think Mike was a little disappointed ( about 5′ 4″) until Trudy appeared and he could ask questions about Ceri’s weekend assignation making it sound like part of a blue movie script. He even speaks with a leer.
From there we got in the car and headed off for lunch. It was fairly quiet when we arrived and gave Angie some chocolates to take home and some for the staff behind the counter. No-one else was around but as yet no-one needed to be. Angie made our drinks and came to take our order. Mike and I were mid conversation about taste. He said to me about someone we’re both acquainted with that he has ‘Poundshop’ taste. As I was taking my tablet Angie asked what he meant. He answered”You know what a chav is” at which point I expected him to say -he is one. Instead I heard “well he ranks just below them”. I honestly couldn’t help myself. The coffee I’d just sipped came spraying out over the table and Mike’s hat. I managed to retain the tablet but was choking with laughter. I had to take more coffee and then start cleaning the mess with serviettes while Mike had hysterics in his chair. I went to have a look at the shelve of gifts Tariq has and found a beautiful Folio Society Blue Fairy book for Reuben at a remarkable price as they’re usually £44.99 each. I may get another one next week unless I’ve been beaten to it. Tariq came in at that moment and came to say hello. He’s been at the woodworking again aand made a beautiful box I wouldn’t be ashamed to have my ashes in. He’s quite the craftsman.
As Tariq went to carry on with the job he’s doing Mike and I went for a cigarette outside. The forecast has been wrong today, no sign of rain at all. Lunch was being put on the table as we went back in. Perfect timing. It was a slow and pleasurable affair. Every mouthful savoured. We spent time finishing coffee before I had the pleasure paying Angie, and the delight of no fighting about it. Mike told me when we were in on Friday he’d liked an ornament which Tariq had told him was £2.00 which in fact was £20.00 so I was expecting problems today since he’d lost that battle. He came into the room in time to give hugs and wish us goodbye and I got away cleanly for once. Mike dropped me at home and left on the next stage of his journey virtually straight away giving me the chance to try and catch up with mail. When I finally made it I went through to the lounge and wrapped some birthday gifts and did a card in case I get a visit this week from Jen herself or from Lee if he’s able to make games night. Some more catching up before watching a Deborah Messing film and then I came through to see to the rest of the messages, this post and another one I want to release this week which by the time you see this will have been done.
Monday. A strange day. I was up early and as perky as usual ( grouchy with no witnesses) getting on with the mail when about 6.00 am I came over very tired. I hopped back onto the bed and was immediately away. I woke again at 6.55 am but was reluctant to move. It was just the thoughts being directed at me from the fish tank that forced me from the bedroom to the kitchen. I fed the monsters then took my drugs, made some toast and a coffee. I was back in my room by 7.30 am to take up where I’d left off. It was really a struggle to keep my eyes open and I was constantly nodding off and being jerked awake as I fell forwards. I had to persevere. At 9.00 am I got dressed and went to to send two letters back that had come addressed to Julia and deliver a prescription request to the chemist. I also picked up some baps from Pauline’s.
The breath of fresh air had revived me I thought but when I resumed working on the mail I was back to nodding so I eventually had to give up and go to my chair in the lounge. I was afraid of falling asleep here and imprinting the keyboard on my forehead as I fell. I imagined being carted off by some Government Agency to have the hieroglyphs translated. In my chair the snores were bouncing off the ceiling within minutes. I was out almost an hour again. It was back to work for another hour and then it was lunchtime. It’s not as bright today so no greenery, I did myself bangers and mash with beans. A welcome treat, and at least two thirds veg so healthy? I managed to watch one of my antique programmes before turning off and deciding I had to sleep again. I was drifting off nicely when my phone indicated a message. It was Mike to let me know his phone is working????? I tried again and the strident tones of the house phone went off. It doesn’t ring for long before it goes to answer machine as I don’t answer the phone. As it cut off I tried again. It let me get into a deep sleep this time before it rang again. By the time I surfaced it had stopped but I took it as a sign that I was to work.
I had a reasonable session and was making real progress when it hit me again. I had to lie down. I was out for another hour and a half before managing to get back to the computer. At 5.00 pm I went through to watch TV and turned on a programme called Come Dine With Me.I saw the first party then must have conked out. When I came to it was a new programme altogether. At 8.00 pm I’d had enough entertainment so I went to take my evening drugs and turn the fish tank light off before coming through to do battle. There have been some very encouraging comments of support about today’s blog post which is great because very often the slightest dig at organised religion and you find out who your friends are- or aren’t. So, I was almost up to date when I decided to see to the blog instead. I’m meeting Yvonne and Reuben tomorrow ( If I wake up) and we’re going to have a mooch in Broughton Park. It’s easier to deal with individual messages than to have to do the blog if it gets too late tonight.
Hatboy
Hatboy 2
Tuesday. I decided to go the lazy layabout route this morning and didn’t get up until 5.10 am. I worked (very hard) until 6.30 am then decided to give the fish a treat by putting their light on and feeding them early. They feigned no interest and just ignored me. I was hurt. It didn’t stop me having a piece of toast though. I took my morning fix and made a coffee to take through but before sitting down with it I had to get washed and dressed. By now it was gone 7.00 am and I was due to leave the house at 7.30 am. There was time to do some more messages while I drank the coffee but a few would have to wait till I got back. By a few I mean just 20.
So, at 7.30 am I swung my trusty backpack on and headed for the bus stop. I was nearly bent double under the weight of the Fairy Story Book I got at the weekend and £25 in small coinage from the piggy I keep for Reuben. I think the pig is going on a diet from now on. I arrived at the bus stop before the bus today and the first one to arrive was the T1 which I usually take when I feel like throwing pictures about. Today though I”m meeting Yvonne at a different place and need the 11G. The driver of the T1 hung about at the stop to give me chance to get on but with a gentle shake of the head I indicated my adventures were elsewhere today. He drove of no doubt in high dudgeon at losing a regular. The 11G arrived and I climbed aboard and deposited myself on one of the seats designated for the disabled. There was no chance of getting my backpack off before the bus started off so I kept it on for the journey.Not a comfortable ride. We reached the top of the hill and the full fury of the sunshine smacked me in the eyes and within moments I was sweating. Had I been able to remove the backpack I’d have been able to remove my jacket ( because of the pockets before you ask) and leave myself in shirt sleeves only.( I was in fact properly clothed on the lower half).
The journey was long enough that I was thinking about Christmas presents before I arrived at my stop. But eventually I did arrive. My next job was to play chicken with the fast moving works traffic so I could cross the road. My imitation of Charles Laughton doing The Lunchpack of Notre Dame didn’t seem to be getting me any sympathy as no-one was stopping. I just had to make a mad limp for it. Next was a bit of a trek round to the store where we were meeting. I was a bit earlier than expected so I went straight upstairs to the cafe and texted Yvonne. I ordered a latte and a very obliging young man helped me off with the pack so I could sit comfortably. He brought the drink and went to get sugar for me too.Very helpful. Yvonne arrived as I was a couple of sips in so I gave her the money for whatever she wanted while I got my grandson out of his buggy. He actually reached for me as I undid his belt.
I got him in a high chair next to me as Yvonne came back with her drink and with toast for Reuben. As he enjoyed his toast he also had his proper breakfast and did quite well. After breakfast we wandered around the gents department and I was amazed to find polo shirts on sale from £1 and teeshirts from £2, needless to say I indulged. I managed to find some things for Reuben and even some flip flops for Yvonne. We left the store without visiting the other departments. But, there was another large shop next door. We came away from there empty handed. I lit a cigarette outside as we wandered further up the row until we reached the Costa. It was time for another coffee and Yvonne and I elbow wrestled to see whose Costa Card we would use for double points Tuesday.As usual she managed to distract me and won. We sat inside this time as it was cooler and I had an iced coffee. Reuben had fallen asleep as he’d had a very wakeful night last night it seems. We left him to it as we walked up the next side of the square until we reached the Pound Shop.I’ve never seen anyone go berserk like Yvonne in there. So many things to do with the pirate theme of Reuben’s birthday. Then another large store where we managed to find something for Yvonne for a change, though we argued about who was paying. This time I distracted her. We decided to stay there for lunch too and I had a baked potato with coleslaw, Yvonne added cheese to hers.
In the last shop there were some beautiful gifts. I was amazed that we could see so many nice things and yet the only thing that was bought was a small pack of noisy objects for Reuben. At this point he was awake and had to have one straight away.Rattle, Rattle, Rattle.all the way out. It was now well gone 3.00 pm so I told Yvonne I’d go home. Despite another argument (which I lost) she insisted on walking round to the bus stop with me and waiting. The bus didn’t keep me waiting long. This time I’d carried my backpack on the handle of my crutch so I was able to take my jacket off and enjoy a cooler journey. It was a long journey again and with stoppages for road works. It was almost 5.00 pm before I reached home. One neighbour called me to bring me my drugs from the chemist. Another one arrived and was telling me about her swollen leg and added she was disappointed she’d never seen Reuben though her daughter has. I’ll have to put that right. Then a third neighbour arrived to say he was holding a parcel the postman had left with him. It wouldn’t fit through the letter box. Eventually I got indoors. It took two minutes to unpack my bag and a couple more to look at the jewellery for Christmas that had been delivered. After that I sat at the computer to deal with the 241 messages from today. Apart from taking my tablets at 8.00 pm I haven’t left this chair. The more I do, the more comes in. So this blog is actually on Wednesday rather than Tuesday and there’s still more mail to do before I can finish. At least games night doesn’t cause as many problems.
Wednesday. 4.10 am start despite being up late last night. I found a message on my phone from MuJo and I wanted the post to be as up to date as possible when they got here. They didn’t give me a time but it wouldn’t be early. At 7.00 am I went through to see to the fish, take tabs etc , have breakfast and then bring a coffee back here.This wasn’t as fun laden as it sounds since I’m suffering this morning with a mouth ulcer and it piggin’ hurts. Once I’d put the coffee on my desk I wen searching for the Bonjela to try and deaden things so I’m not really the Grumpy Pants I’m depicted at when MuJo arrive. I went through the medicine cabinet as a first option then through the drug drawers. Nada. It took me twenty minutes to find it on the bathroom windowsill holding all he cobwebs together. I got dressed and went to get a new tube from the chemist but not before singing Happy Birthday to the old one. I also called in at Pauline’s for some cigarettes as my nephew Matt will be here for games night. It’s easier to leave a pack on his table than to have him roll his own.
Back into battle on my return until the postman brought me joy. A tax rebate is due, not great but every little helps, and he delivered another piece of Christmas jewellery, that means just one set to go. It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting the mirror clock I won on ebay. For the second time the seller has not sent it nor refunded me so far. I’ve put it in ebay’s hands again but I’m furious that people can do this. If they want a better price for their goods they should stick a reserve on.
Mujo arrived at about 11.00 am and when I’d done a drink said they didn’t want a cooked meal as it’s so hot today, they’d like to go to Temptations and have a pannini with a drink. First though they’d like to go to Holywell. That suited me ans that’s what we did but I had to chuckle. We went up to Holywell first and then instead of cutting across to Flint the quick way they came down past my house and went the long way round. We had a nice lunch in Temptations, I had beef sandwiches and a pot of tea. I had a lovely kiss off Ceri for her birthday wine. We had a good mooch around all the shops as they looked for a gift for John’s mother. Then we started heading back but they decided to go shopping for food in Holywell, this time taking the short cut she wouldn’t take before. This expedition didn’t take too long and we were soon back at home again.
By now I was getting twitchy wondering how much mail had come and how much I could clear before Dil arrived. They left me about 4.15 pm and I shot into my room to start. There were over 100 messages and I cleared as many as possible before games night started. Dil and Matt arrived about 5.40 pm and I had to give up. I made drinks and we started play with the new Scrabble. Dil won the first game but I must be getting the hand as the second game went to me. Next we decided to play a game of Yahtzee for a change. The box hasn’t been opened since they bought it for me at Christmas. First game to Matt as was the second but I was the conquering hero in the third. They left me at 9.30 pm and I rushed round tidying up and washing pots so I could get in here. Back to over 200 messages. It’s 11.40 pm and I’m half way there. I stopped to take my tabs and do the blog post so it wasn’t forgotten. At this rate I’ll still be here at breakfast.
Dude.
I heard today that Reuben is almost two stone. He’s not in the least fat but he’s a solid little beggar.
Thursday. 4.00 am was just too early this morning but I’d already been awake for over half an hour and sleep was playing hide and seek with me. OK, it gave me the chance to get going on the mail from you lot who’ve nothing better to do with your time than write then write about writing. I was coming towards h end at 7.00 am when I broke off to do my duty a la the piscatorial side of life and to take my tabs. When I came back with my coffee I decided to have a break from doing the mail and try to make something of the rare photographs I got of my brother Dil and my nephew Matt last night. I should have been born a couple of hundred years ago, I’d have been out there hacking at technology with an axe I’m sure. This phone defeats me. I cannot get it to send me an email yet I know I have the internet connection on. After the trouble I went to for this app I want to use it. I have a limited version on the computer which can’t be upgraded and I want to add some more pictures to my walls, but treated ones. Here are two I did on the computer where I’ve made hem into sketches. I think the effect is great. That nasty looking Victorian villain, fresh from tying a young lady to the tracks is me. ( Serves her right for spurning my advances).
Julia and I.
Is there a train due?
Eventually I had to give it up as a bad job and hope that Mike can get me back on the right track again. So, I started back in on the mail. There were some interesting things today,not least a nice request from an author for an interview which I sent off. Maybe it’ll be back in time for the coming week. At 9.15 am I got dressed and took my usual walk to Pauline’s for new lottery tickets. I don’t think I’ve said that she’d very troubled with arthritis and can’t stand upright yet always has a kind word.
When I got back the postman hadn’t been with my tax rebate which is a disappointment as I’d like to get it to the bank. So, I finished a little more mail and then went to the lounge to catch 40 Zzzz’s. I swear someone knows when I’m trying that as the phone immediately goes off. As soon as it stops you calm your jangling nerves and try again. There it goes again, I’ll unplug the damn thing. The trouble is, it’s technology again isn’t it. If I unplugged it I’d probably stop someone leaving me an important message. I picked up a magazine and memorised all next weeks TV programmes until lunchtime. Because my mouth is so sore I didn’t fancy trying to work my way through a piece of meat, nor anything like a lettuce you have to chew for hours. In the end I settled on some new potatoes, some cold meat and some peas and carrots. I could have probably put the lot in a blender and had a smoothie lunch. It was back to work after I’d washed the pots and there was enough to keep me going until almost 5.00 pm. I decided to relax with a bit of TV then and watched a quiz until 5.45 pm when my niece-in-law turned up. I’d asked her to come so I could give her the birthday gift I’d hoped to give to Lee on Wednesday. It’s her birthday tomorrow. She was quite excited as Lee has just told her he’s taking her to Paris for the weekend. Who says romance is dead? I’m very fond of Jen and think they’re the perfect couple. I’m hoping for baby news yet. When she left I concentrated on the news for a while, then an episode of Top of the Pops from 1979 with The Knack doing My Sherona and ABBA who formed in 1972 and won the Eurovision in 1974. After that it was side splitting time with the latest Big Bang Theory. Then I could skive no more and came through to battle with the mail and the blog post.
Friday. It was a 4.50 am start after a fairly rough night. Aaaargghh,it hurts. The Bonjela isn’t helping as much as I’d hoped. I worked my way through the usual routine which on a Friday includes preparing my tablets for the week. as I brought my coffee back afterwards I got myself washed and dressed ready to go out as soon as the shops opened. At 9.00 am I went to the chemist and bought some Anbesol which hopefully will kill some of the pain. I couldn’t face breakfast because of it. I put the first lot on as soon as I got home, it seemed to help a bit. At least I was able to concentrate on the mail again. At 10.10 the postman arrived and there was the tax rebate. I made myself take a bus to town , almost falling onto it because the step was so high. The driver hadn’t bothered to lower it. In the end the only thing to fall was one of my crutches but had someone not been behind me I’d have had to get off the bus before I’d even gone anywhere. It wasn’t a long trip and the bus stop is close to the bank so it wasn’t far to walk. I opened my new paying in book and it caught my breath that there was just my name on it now.I haven’t used the new book since Julia, things catch me at funny moments. Outside the bank again I used the cash machine to save doing so tomorrow and then walked up the high street to catch a bus home. I was almost at the top of the street when I saw a new Charity Shop where a chemist formerly traded. It was for St Kentigern’s Hospice which was where Ju died. I had to pop in. I didn’t think there was much of interest and was on my way out again when I saw a triple photo frame in great unused condition. I said yesterday that I needed a new one to balance out the one Yvonne bought me for Fathers Day. I bought it and was still in time for the bus. Even carrying the frame I got on this one a lot better.
Back at home again I flew through the messages to catch up. As soon as I did I selected some photographs from my file and converted them to sketches with this new app I keep raving about. I did it on the computer as I still can’t get emails to leave the phone. I printed them and put them in the frame ready to hang. I got the usual message ‘On way’ from Mike and knew he’d be there about 2.00 pm. Then the phone went again and it was Lis asking if I was in. I was quick to answer “Yes” and she said she’d be down in an hour. That gave me chance to keep on top of the post. About 12.15 pm I went through to the lounge and put my antiques show on while waiting for Lis to arrive. She was there by half past and stayed with me an hour chatting. She’s a really good friend and I hope I’d prove as good if the need ever arose.
Mike arrived. Hugs followed. Before making a coffee I checked to see if he’d stopped to eat on the way. He hadn’t, so I was able to suggest going for lunch and having a coffee then. He agreed thank heavens as I was more than just a bit peckish. The Ivy was a bit busier because it was raining but we still had no problem getting our seats and getting served by Tariq who came over to hug us both when we came in. As he was doing our drinks I picked up another of Reuben’s books and asked Tariq if the other two had gone. He’d never even got round to putting them out he told me. Fantastic, I bought all three. A brilliant birthday gift for Reuben. Naturally the arguments started early as Tariq tried to make me take some money back for buying them all but I was already making a huge saving on each one. Because of my mouth I had an omelette today with a few (soft) chips. It went down beautifully. Mike had a Brunch breakfast and really enjoyed it, except he couldn’t quite finish it.
We chatted to Shella a bit and Mike had passed her the chocolates when we first went in so she hid them from Tariq and his sweet tooth. We had a really good chat with him as things quieted down and he told us how under the thumb he is ( yeah right!) and then upset Mike by showing him the new phone he bought which is all singing all dancing, 2 sim cards, quad core, 5.5″ touch screen,3G, blah, blah and all for less than £90.00. Mike was almost puce. We left and made our way home. I attacked the mail in my box to give me chance to spend time with Mike later and he attacked the laptop to see what phones he could find. I heard a lot of grumbling from him about how much his phone had cost. By 5.00 pm I was able to join him and we watched a quiz before an (old) episode of Big Bang came on that Mike hadn’t seen. After that I stood up had an angina attack, claimed it was indigestion, got called liar and went for a shower. Mike washed my hair as usual though while trying to avoid the left side of my face. In the shower I forgot it and was a little vigorous with the rubbing . The chest hurt, the face hurt, just as well there was noting to fall on my foot. I changed into a pair of non-insulting lounge pants and sat in the lounge till 9.00 pm when I found a lot of mail waiting so I decided to do the blog first.
Brother Dil and wife- fancy dress.
Lee
Saturday. 04.11 am this morning which meant I was finished by 6.00 am and shut my eyes for a few minutes in the lounge. I’d like to say I only rested my eyes but someone got up to go to the loo at 6.30 am and swore I was snoring. That would be the same someone who went straight back to bed, fell asleep, snored and missed a coffee call from, me and three calls from his alarm clock before finally making a move.I’d got my coffee, taken tabs, washed and dressed by then. While he moaned, groaned and grumbled about not being awake as he drunk (finally) his coffee, I taken all the rubbish out so we could leave unhindered. One slight problem marred our departure when Mike was finally ready, he almost dislocated an arm grabbing the shopping bag when I’d put £11 of loose copper in the bottom to change. It was like one of those cartoons when the hero is brought up dead when he doesn’t know there’s an anvil in the bag. He almost lost his footing. I had to bite down hard on my hat.
It was raining when we went out but we got to the supermarket safely. Mike changed all the copper in the machine provided and pulled off a shop voucher for the amount lass a charge of I think 9.9 %. Then we started the shopping. I’ve still got food left from this week because of my mouth problems so I didn’t have much on the list. I kept finding things I hadn’t thought about though. We started with potatoes and moved on to flowers since Ju’s vases need brightening up. That’s mainly due to the fact that I don’t seem to have topped them up this week. Some kind of aster I think and some carnations should look nice. The shirt I bought last week at such a bargain price was in the sale today at quadruple what I paid for it. I declined to buy another. Nothing else of interest there so we moved back to food. Some hams, two types, yoghurts, butter, original lemonade drinks, bread, cakes, coffee, milk, biscuits, sweets (not for me) and we were done. We went through the tills and I suggested a coffee. Disaster, none of their machines were working in the cafe. Still, we were heading for Flint.
I stocked up on chocolates and bought some Pepsi Max but the loo rolls I wanted had sold out. Not a major surprise at the price they were. My own fault for not getting them when I first saw them. Time for a coffee now and Mike’s weekly battle with the awesome Ceri who no matter what insult he throws at her, laughs and comes back with her own line. It’s like old style music hall to watch the two of them. He relished the kiss he got for the bottle of wine we got for her birthday. I’m glad I got mine on Wednesday as I wouldn’t have wanted her after I’d seen what he did to her. Growing old disgracefully.
We went home and unpacked the shopping. I was disappointed that my last parcel still hasn’t arrived, and fuming that there is still no word from the ebay seller who’s let me down for the second time. It’s very bad form. Anyway, I ploughed into my emails before Mike and I went out again as he wanted to visit our friend in Llandudno. The sun was out and blazing away as we traveled with the roof down.You can tell it’s holiday season as there are plenty of hold ups on the roads, the ‘grockles’ are out in force. We arrived in Llandudno and made our way to Brian’s flat to collect him. The dog was effusive and excited as usual. Yet again he put his nose where it doesn’t belong and lifted his head so hard I thought I had mumps. I crawled out of the flat and waited by the car. We went off to eat and I chose cottage pie as I thought it would be soft to eat. It wasn’t a great choice.Afterwards we had a wander while Mike tried to find a styptic pencil and I got some books to read. We had a nice coffee outside a little cafe before we delivered Brian back to the dog and then pretty soon Mike and I hit the road home again.
I had a go at diminishing the mail list when I first got in as I was chomping on a dark choc-ice. Then I went through to join Mike for Come Dine With Me and an episode of Lewis. We had a sandwich for tea with a chocolate eclair. The bread was beautiful and thankfully soft. I’m back through now while Mike watches Mrs Brown’s Boys , as I hope to have an early night.
This blog is devoted to legal, historical and human rights matters, in which issues of general concern are addressed freely and spontaneously. It is intended to further an informal exchange of views in the democratic spirit of freedom of opinion and respect for the opinions of others, in an effort to understand rather than condemn, to propose constructive solutions rather than grandstand. The perspective is both from inside and outside the box and the added value lies more in the questions than in the answers.
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